Crossing Lions
by ArmageddonSweetheart
Summary: "Yes, the past can hurt, but the way I see it is you can either run from it..or..learn from it." -Rafiki, The Lion King :AkatsukixSakura: There's a gang of poachers that are terrorizing a lion conservation, and once fate deals them a twist of irony, the circle of life comes around again. They turn into rare newborn lion cubs, and are found by the lion conservation. Karma's a b*tch.


**Okay, so I will not be doing Author's notes because I have a special section for this on my profile. Please read it. In the meantime, enjoy, read and review! :)**

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**_Crossing Lions.. Ahem *Lines: _**_Prologue_

Today is possibly one of the craziest days of my entire career, and dare I say it, life. Before I go insane and bombard you with my latest, possibly greatest news, I think I'd better let you get to know a little bit about me first. You know, for the sake of clearing up any confusion that might be brought up.

I had just gradated from the Colorado State University, and after five years of being one of the brightest minds in the history of the school, I proudly earned my Bachelor's degree, Master's degree, and eventually my Doctor's degree. I was known for being worth my salt in both my intellect and perseverance. One of my many other qualities happened to be not only my mind, but my physical prowess too.

As a kid, I had been a favorite target among some of the more judgmental characters. My hair, God knows why, decided to naturally become flamingo pink. When I was a newborn, my parents had said that I was born a redhead, but said to me that it grew lighter as I grew older. Their guess was that the sun had bleached it or something along the lines of that. I happen to think that it's just a genetic S.N.A.F.U. or a rare genetic malfunction showing through against all of the odds, but that it's no different than a lion being born with white fur, or a lobster being born with a neon blue exoskeleton. Furthermore, the only other evidence that I had to back me up on those theories were that I also had been born with other so-called recessive traits. For example, I was also born left handed, moderately pale, and had eyes the color of malachite. My parents, although ecstatic, were absolutely baffled. My mother had strawberry blonde locks, tanned skin, and grey eyes while my father was a redhead in every sense of the word, with freckles, and had hazel eyes. It made no sense as far as genetics were concerned.

The only traits I have even remotely resembled my parents were my profound love for life, my superior intellect, and my strong will.

Anyways, as I was saying, as a kid, I was an easy target when it came to being nitpicked over. My hair was the most obvious reason, and the fact that it brought out my larger-than-most forehead. Not only was I slightly chubby, I was also a kid who was low on graceful tendencies and didn't know my own strength. I was pretty good when it came to ignoring, and learning to turn off my give a shit factor, but when kids didn't know when to give up, things turned physical. No, I never started the fights, they had, but I ended up finishing them. Boy, did I ever get in trouble with my parents; since I really didn't have a clue on how much unusual strength I contained, I gave it my all, and those kids were knocked onto their backsides before they could yell 'Mommy!'.

My parents noticed the issue since it happened relatively often, so they tried to find a way to help me fully control my temper when things got out of hand. It also couldn't hurt learning how to be a little more graceful. At first, they thought about ballet, but I just never took to it. Then they tried gymnastics; it never held my interest. But then, as a last resort, I was introduced to martial arts. I took to it like a fat kid getting a piece of cake after a month-long diet of broccoli. As I turned fourteen I had become a double black-belt in Tae Kwan Do, Muay Thai, and even knew my way around the boxing ring. That resulted in better discipline, both in grace and temper. On the other hand, I outgrew my chubbiness in which martial arts certainly helped, but never my forehead.

I had even found a few friends in some of my fellow martial artists. That would be Rock Lee, and let's not forget Kiba Inuzuka. Great guys, but they're completely wacky as hell. Especially Lee. Kiba was just a crazy, dog-loving person who refuse to do anything but smile; however, Lee was something else. He wore dark green spandex biking outfits, was obsessed with youth, and never ran out of energy. He also had eyebrows that were planning face domination with black hair in a bowl cut hair style. He declares his apparently undying love for me every chance he gets in the most obnoxious ways possible. Just thinking about it made me want to drive all the way to Mantou Springs and grab an extra large Black Orchid at The Loop.

We've been friends since I earned my yellow-belt, and we were to this day.

Now, onto what I do for a living. I studied many things such as biology, environmental science, wildlife conservation, medical studies for both humans and animals, and I've been just recently been able to educate others on wildlife, too. I find that I like to help hands-on a tad more than speaking on its behalf, but , yes, I know, believe me, I know that the more awareness that can be spread, the more help the various causes receive. I've been working in Denver, Colorado, and switching between the animal shelters and hospitals, and the Denver Zoo.

My favorite thing about my job is being around so many incredible animals and helping them, raising them, and even just being around them. My all-time favorite animals to associate with are the predators, interestingly enough. Mostly big cats. I swear that sometimes they just steal my heart when I get to see them. I loved working in the Denver Zoo's Lion exhibit and Tiger exhibit. I even got to rough house with them a few times, and those had to be some of the greatest moments of my life. One time I even got permission to bring my dorm-mate Anko Mitarashi to see them. That was great.

Oh, I haven't mentioned Anko yet? How dare I?

Hah, but seriously, guys, we couldn't have been better friends. I had been extremely nervous about having a roommate as I was moving in. Would we be at each others throats? Would she be annoying? Would she be gross? Would she be a delinquent? Would she be a slut? Would she be a bitch? All of these questions buzzed in my head, and then I met her. Oh boy, we were both sort-of testing the waters, so to speak, and after about a week of pranks, trying to gain each other's respect, snapping at each other, and going through about seventeen Hershey's Chocolate bars each, I could answer those questions. Not so much. No. No. No. No. Hell fucking yes. We were going to get along just fine. And we did. We were both brilliant, independent, strong, and, yes, _occasionally_ *snort* bitchy. To this day, even after graduation, we are still roommates, and living in a really nice apartment close to both of our jobs.

She happened to work at an animal precinct, and kicked ass at it. Sometimes we actually got to work in the same place, depending on which place I'd be giving a hand to.

Our pay was exceptionally good, hence our amazing apartment slash living situation, but our work hours are insane. I mean insane as in 'Oh my god I'm going to die because of sleep deprivation." not insane as in "Oh, I think I'll sleep in and go to work whenever." Biiiig difference. Big, big, big, big, big difference.

We just go as we're needed, and that means even the night shift. It's incredibly complex, but you'll see why later on. I really do hate to complain because I really am quite fortunate when it comes to these things, and not many people are this lucky. If I look back on everything, I've come quite a ways over my short, young adult life.

Anko's actually about six months older than me. She's twenty-four, and she hates celebrating her birthday on the twenty-fourth of October. I'm twenty-three, and I freaking love celebrating my birthday on March twenty-eighth. If your forget it, then you're dead to me. I remember on this one occasion, Kiba forgot my birthday, and I was pissed and pretended that he never existed until he remembered it the following year. Yeah, bitch. Rawr.

Relationship-wise, Anko and I are straight, single, and ready to mingle. Things haven't been like that until recently because I had severed quite the serious relationship, but I'd rather tell you later as opposed to sooner. Anko's sweetheart turned out to be gay, but I wasn't mean enough to tell her 'I told you so,'. I'm not that heartless and bitchy towards other humans, right?... Right?

Anyways, where was I?

Oh, right. Major turning point in my career, and/or life.

So, here I was. Two in the morning. Been there since four in the afternoon. On the job at the Denver Zoo. In the Lion's exhibit. Our pregnant female lioness, Zira had just given birth to five cubs half an hour ago. Five is an unusually large amount in a litter. Normally, the most you'd see would have been about four. They were all extremely tiny even for newborn lion cubs' standard which averages 1.2 to 2.1 kilograms or 2.6 to 4.6 pounds. The heaviest of the litter just barely reached the 2.6 pounds, but the tiniest one, which was definitely the runt of the liter, only reached a mere 2.2 pounds.

I was the first that noticed that the runt, which I had named Maua, was getting pushed out of the way while the bigger cubs were trying to nurse from their mother. There just wasn't any room for the poor thing to eat, and the other cubs wouldn't let her near her mother at all. I let my higher up know, whose name was Myrtle Snider, and I called her Manwitch. Because she looks like a man, and is a total witch. Its also resembling her love for gross, messy sandwiches. So here's the story behind her. You know how you could have the best job in the world but some coworker or boss always messes it up by being a complete asswipe? Well that's her. Anyways, I told her, and she gave me a snotty look as she was sitting on her ass at her desk, eating a meatball sub, while taking her slow ass time writing down what I was telling her. I could tell that she honestly didn't really take my word for anything, so she scrunched up her portly, freckled face as she was lecturing me.

"Haruno, if you think that I don't know how the cubs are doing, then you can do this job yourself. I happen to know that the cubs are just fine, and I don't need you to butt into my responsibilities. Honestly Haruno, if you're as smart as you think you are, then why are you below me? I bet that you only got this job because you think your irresistible and you get guys to sleep with you. Not to mention your attitude makes you seem psychotic and incompetent."

She then took a gargantuan bite out of her sub.

I wanted to explode. Like, really fucking wanted to shove the rest of her entire fucking meatball sub and shove it up her ass. First of all, I hate her whiny-scraggly voice that sounded like a wet fart coming out of an elephant's ass, and her condescending tone and mannerisms. If anything, she was the slut, because she always tried (and failed) to flirt with her superiors, and tried to get them in bed with her so she could have a promotion. Luckily, no one wanted to fuck her ugly, Thirty-eight-year-old, fat, manly, wrinkly ass because her obnoxiously permed, orangey-blonde hair shot out around her head like a motherfucking beacon. She didn't even go to college that I know of.

_Who in the hell does she think she is to call me (a) stupid, (b) a slut, (c) psychotic or (d) incompetent?_

Did she know that she was describing herself?

I took a big breath in, and let it out slowly before replying.

"I..." I almost lost my temper, but breathed and started again.

"...am sorry that it appears that way to you, _Myrtle." _

I'm sorry, but it was hard not to sneer while saying her name.

"Maybe, I'll just bring Mr. Wellman down to check on the cubs just in case. Is that alright with you, Snider?"

Mr. Wellman was her superior, and he clearly didn't like her either, and told me to let him know if he could help when she was throwing one of her conniption fits. I gave her a smile, and walked passed her making her drop her sandwich in a puddle on the cement floor. Her face turned to a look of pure horror. Got'cha, Manwitch.

I knocked on Mr. Wellman's door, and I heard a polite 'Come in.' on the other side.

"Ah, Sakura, what brings you here?"

I smiled politely at the older man with a kind face and a white scraggly beard.

"I was wondering if you could take a look at the cubs since I noticed that the little runt of the litter, Maua, isn't fairing well because the other cubs were counting her out. I told Man...I mean Myrtle about it, and well, you know how she can be."

He frowned a little at my mention of Myrtle.

"Yes, I do, and I'll be there in no time at all. I just have to finish this letter. I promise this won't take but a moment more."

I nodded, and headed back to where the cubs and their mother were being kept, and saw that Maua was still being separated from her mother. It broke my heart a little.

Mr. Wellman entered the room, and looked a little sad.

"Sakura?"

"Sir?"

"Do you know what happens when a cub is unable to get nutrients from its mother?"

"Yes, sir."

I could see where this was going, and my heart deflated a little.

"Well, then you already know how important this is if we want all of the cubs to live."

"I'd do anything to help, sir."

"I know you would, so why don't we get started?"

I felt my spirits lift a little, and smiled.

"Yes, sir! May I suggest that the cubs that have already eaten be moved and cleaned up, while Maua can eat in solitude with her mother?"

"That sounds like a fine idea."

Once we had retrieved the other cubs carefully as to not upset Zira, cleaned them up, and helped Maua reach her mother, we saw that her mother wouldn't respond to her. I've heard of this happening when a mother won't accept her young, but I never thought that I'd be witnessing it.

I went over to where Mr. Wellman was watching over the cleaned and fed cubs, and told him about Zira rejecting Maua. His eyes immediately portrayed the worst.

"I'm sorry, Sakura. There may be nothing we can do for the poor cub."

"Well, sir, if I may suggest. I've heard of animal adoption in cases like this. Do you think another lioness would take her in?"

"I suppose we could try and see, but until then, we need to get the cub fed. Would you like to feed her? I believe we have some special formula that the cub can have. As you may already know, we keep it around in case the mothers don't provide enough milk for their cubs."

I nodded enthusiastically, and grinned ear to ear. Once the formula was ready, I held the little, spotted lioness in one arm while I fed her with a baby bottle specialized for animals. Man was Maua hungry. As I was feeding her, she nuzzled her nose against my hand. I automatically knew that I was doing the right thing. She could sense that I was caring for her, whether she knew that I wasn't her mother or another lion I can only guess, but I could tell that she was happy. Or as close to happy as a lion could get. Once she had her fill of the formula, she mewled a little, and I called Mr. Wellman in to see if he needed me to do anything else for her.

"Sakura? Can I ask something?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"How much could you sacrifice to ensure the survival of Maua and other cubs like herself?"

The question took me by surprise. I looked down at the small cub in my arms.

"Almost anything, sir. Why do you ask?"

"Because Sakura, I need you to go to Africa. With the cub."

What...?


End file.
